MANDALAY, April 29 — When a massive earthquake hit Myanmar last month, centuries of sacred history tumbled down — towering Buddha idols, sky-scraping stupas and the pure-white pagoda where 83-year-old Khin Sein has prayed for most of her life.

The magnitude-7.7 tremor razed Nagayon Pagoda in the central city of Mandalay, Myanmar’s last royal capital where ancient heritage was decimated in the disaster which claimed more than 3,700 lives.

For around 200 years, the temple was adorned with a carving of a sacred serpent said to have shielded the Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment.

The quake that struck one month ago on Monday reduced it to a heap of shapeless masonry, half burying the snake’s bowing head.

“I don’t think any bricklayer or architect could rebuild it the same as it once was,” she told AFP, her eyes welling with tears as she paced the perimeter of the temple where she had prayed for 51 years.

“I want the original back but I know it’s not possible.”

‘Old things are most valuable’

The March 28 quake has left more than 60,000 people living in tent encampments, according to the United Nations, and pushed two million people into “critical need” in a country already devastated by civil war since a 2021 coup.

As the ground sheared up to six metres (20 feet), more than 3,000 monasteries and nunneries were destroyed alongside more than 5,000 pagodas, the ruling junta says.

Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay and the adjacent cities of Sagaing and Inwa, dotted around the quake’s epicentre, are all ancient seats of power, steeped in history and now pockmarked with ruins.

Cultural capital Mandalay was where the British captured the country’s last king in 1885, beginning colonial rule of the whole nation. The Royal Palace’s crenellations have crumbled in places with ornate bastions collapsed askew.

A one-kilometre colonial-era bridge has collapsed into the Irrawaddy River towards Sagaing, where the horizon was once prickled with pinnacles of pagodas and stupas now contorted or simply gone.

Inwa served as capital for nearly 360 years until it was abandoned after a magnitude-8.2 quake struck in 1839. Three quarters of the historic buildings inside its ancient cultural heritage zone were damaged in this year’s jolt, officials say.

Thu Nanda has come to visit what remains of Me Nu Brick Monastery. Built in 1818, entire portions of its gleaming north and west wings have been devastated, its gold filigree exterior cracked with terracotta-colour innards spilling out.

“The old things are the most valuable,” said Thu Nanda, a 49-year-old monk. “The loss of historic heritage is breaking our hearts.” “Even if we are able to repair it, people will not be able to feel it in its original form. Old is just old. It cannot be restored,” he said.

“I think the loss of our heritage affects not only our country but also the world.”

Blessed by survival

Myanmar is still grappling with the recovery of human remains from the ruins and the oncoming summer monsoon season. Heavy rains are already forecast this week as thousands mark one month camped outside.

While surveyors have investigated damage to historic buildings, reconstruction efforts are focused on aiding the living victims with little thought yet for the restoration of heritage landmarks.

Myanmar has seen more than its fair share of destruction. The four-year war has made air strikes and sieges of urban centres commonplace. Thousands have been killed, 3.5 million are displaced and half the population now live in poverty.

Nonetheless Thein Myint Ko, surveying the three-centuries-old Lawka Tharaphu Pagoda, says: “I have never experienced such tragedy in my 65 years alive”. He serves on the board of trustees of a building largely ruined by the force of the quake.

Its gold stupa was cracked like eggshells, and now volunteer workers from a nearby village spade at the dusty remnants beneath. “I feel devastated,” said Thein Myint Ko.

But what was left unscathed has become more precious to the annals of Myanmar.

Somehow a monumental eight-metre marble statue of the Buddha is largely undamaged — its gold halo shattered and a crack at its base, but its serene expression unperturbed.

“No one was injured and the Buddha image survived,” said one man clearing rubble at the feet of the statue. “It is such a blessed pagoda.” — AFP

YANGON (AFP): Myanmar marked one month since suffering its fiercest earthquake in more than a century on Monday, with military bombardments unabated despite a humanitarian truce as thousands of survivors camp in makeshift shelters.

The magnitude-7.7 tremor was the strongest with an epicentre on Myanmar's land mass since 1912, the United States Geological Survey reported, killing nearly 3,800 according to an official toll still rising daily.

"It's been a month but we are still very busy trying to get back what we lost," said one Mandalay resident who asked to remain anonymous.

"I am not the only one still in difficulty, it's everyone around me as well." With tens of thousands people still homeless as monsoon season approaches, aid agencies are warning of major challenges to come.

"People are extremely concerned about what will happen in the next few weeks," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Myanmar chief Nadia Khoury told AFP. 

Meanwhile she said the organisation was planning a two-year relief plan because "the geographical magnitude of this earthquake has been absolutely huge".

The military -- which sparked a civil war by snatching power in a 2021 coup -- declared a ceasefire to spur relief efforts starting on April 2.

But since then monitors from the Britain-based Centre for Information Resilience have logged 65 air attacks by the junta.

A strike on Wednesday killed five people and wounded eight more in a village on the outskirts of the town of Tabayin, residents told AFP, 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of the earthquake's epicentre.

"I managed to hide immediately after I heard explosions but my elder sister couldn't," said 40-year-old Ko Aung. "She ran randomly in a panic during the strike and a piece of shrapnel hit her head. She died on the spot."

Cho Tint, 46, said she sheltered in a cow shed as a fighter jet dropped two bombs. "The military announced a ceasefire for the quake but they broke it already and are still attacking civilians," she said. "That's them crossing the line."

In eastern Myanmar residents also said they were forced from their homes in an offensive by opposition armed groups attempting to seize towns on a lucrative trade route to Thailand during the truce, due to last until Wednesday.

After four years of war, half the population were already living in poverty and 3.5 million were displaced before the quake, which sheared the ground up to six metres (20 feet) in places according to NASA analysis.

Khoury said some of the badly-hit regions already had a high level of humanitarian need because they were hosting people displaced by fighting. "Now it's become even higher with this earthquake," she said.

Ahead of the tremor the nation of more than 50 million was also bracing for the impact of international aid cuts following US President Donald Trump's campaign to slash Washington's humanitarian budget.

The World Food Programme had said it would cut off one million from vital food aid starting in April as a result of "critical funding shortfalls". - AFP

SEREMBAN - Seorang lelaki yang juga pemilik premis yang menjalankan aktiviti penjualan minyak bahan bakar untuk kegunaan industri ditahan selepas disyaki menyebabkan pencemaran Loji Rawatan Air(LRA) Sungai Linggi.

Suspek berusia 31 tahun itu ditahan selepas sehari laporan berkenaan pencemaran terbabit diterima.

"Seorang lelaki yang juga merupakan Pegawai Eksekutif Pengeluaran Syarikat Air Negeri Sembilan (SAINS) telah membuat laporan tentang satu laporan diterimanya daripada operator loji berkenaan pencemaran air sungai.

"Ia setelah dia mendapati terdapat tumpahan minyak di LRA tersebut," katanya dalam kenyataan pada Isnin.

Menurutnya, Jabatan Alam Sekitar juga telah pun mengambil sampel air di loji terbabit dan telah membuat pengesahan bahawa air tersebut selamat digunakan.

Tambahnya, kes disiasat di bawah Seksyen 430 Kanun Keseksaan yang memperuntukkan hukuman penjara tidak kurang lima tahun dan tidak lebih 30 tahun atau dengan denda atau kedua-duanya.

NAYPYIDAW: Ribuan mangsa masih berlindung di khemah-khemah sementara, selepas genap sebulan Myanmar dilanda gempa bumi paling dahsyat dalam lebih satu abad.

Gempa bumi berukuran 7.7 skala Richter merupakan gegaran terkuat di Myanmar sejak tahun 1912, sehingga mengorbankan hampir 3,800 orang.

Kemusnahan paling teruk tertumpu di bandar kedua terpadat, Mandalay, di bangunan kediaman, restoran, hotel dan rumah ibadat musnah atau rosak teruk.

Dengan puluhan ribu orang masih tiada tempat tinggal menjelang musim monsun, agensi bantuan memberi amaran mengenai cabaran besar yang dijangka menyusul.

“Orang ramai amat bimbang dengan apa yang akan berlaku dalam beberapa minggu akan datang,” kata Ketua Persekutuan Palang Merah Antarabangsa (IRFC) Myanmar, Nadia Khoury kepada AFP.

Bukan hanya terhimpit dengan impak bencana, Myanmar juga berdepan dengan serangan ketenteraan yang berlarutan meskipun terdapat gencatan senjata.

Tentera – yang mencetuskan perang saudara selepas rampasan kuasa 2021 – mengisytiharkan gencatan senjata untuk mempercepatkan usaha bantuan bermula 2 April lalu.

Namun, pemantau dari Pusat Ketahanan Maklumat yang berpangkalan di Britain mencatatkan 65 serangan udara oleh junta.

Serangan pada Rabu lalu mengorbankan lima nyawa dan mencederakan lapan yang lain di sebuah kampung di pinggir bandar Tabayin, menurut penduduk.

Di timur Myanmar, penduduk melaporkan mereka terpaksa meninggalkan rumah akibat serangan kumpulan bersenjata yang cuba merampas bandar di laluan perdagangan menguntungkan ke Thailand semasa gencatan senjata berlangsung.

Selepas empat tahun konflik, separuh daripada populasi sudah pun hidup dalam kemiskinan dan 3.5 juta orang dipindahkan sebelum gempa tersebut.